Time and Again Ryan Montebleau Lesson

Posted by: ryanmontbleau | December 28, 2012

Connection

I'm reading Studs Terkel'south famous oral history book called "Working." It's a collection of over 100 interviews with people of different professions. As the front cover says, "People talk about what they practice all 24-hour interval and how they experience near what they do." Everyone from a gravedigger, to a studio head, to a policeman, to a prostitute, to a pianoforte tuner.

It was published in 1972 and one of the most fascinating parts of the read is the mode that jobs take inverse in the last 40 years. Certain professions don't fifty-fifty be anymore, and many others are now a far, far cry from what these people describe. Only equally fascinating are the ways in which things haven't inverse. The human element remains. People are people and humanity endures.

This evening while reading a section about a telephone solicitor in Chicago, I got the idea for this web log. The woman's task required her to cold-call people all day long on behalf of a big newspaper, soliciting people for subscriptions. It was a high pressure job and she would be told to lie to potential customers if needed. She would tell them for instance that their money would support a charity for the bullheaded, annihilation to fill her quota of subscriptions and continue her job.

When describing her guilt at taking money from people in the poorer sections of town, she said:

"A lot of them were then happy that someone actually called. They could talk all day long to me. They told me all their problems and I'd listen. … They were so elated to hear someone nice, someone just to mind a few minutes to something that had happened to them. Somehow to show concern about them."

I've been pretty lonely away from the stage this year for diverse personal reasons and lately I find myself in an endless loop of: check Twitter, bank check Facebook, check my electronic mail, check Instagram, check Twitter, check Facebook, transport a text, check my electronic mail, text again, check Instagram, post a pic, status update, and on and on and on…

And why? In a nutshell it's because I'k craving connection. To utilise the same words from the quote above, I want "someone just to listen for a few [seconds] to something that had happened to [me]."

Don't we all? We use social media and other modern connection tools for so many different reasons, but I have to believe that this thought is at the core of why we exercise it.

The lesson I need to take from this? Lend people your ear. Mind to them. Concord a petty space for them whenever you tin can, requite them a few seconds or a few minutes whenever you can spare it. Nosotros are all continued and these connections prevarication far, far deeper than Facebook or a text or an email. Although it's not a bad beginning if we tin can utilise those things in the right way.

And this goes for everyone. Strangers, friends, hell even your enemies. The danger of social media is that we tin insulate ourselves in a bubble with only the people we agree with. But it's the "us against them" mentality that'll be our undoing. People are hurting. People are scared and lonely and confused and misinformed and everyone gets trapped by their own ego. Everyone. Fifty-fifty you.

Show yourself compassion and show it to somebody else today.

I was merely playing my guitar for a while alone in my room. I wasn't practicing actually, but playing. Well, at get-go I was practicing to a metronome, trying to nail downwardly a few fiddling melodic licks that ran through my caput. I have washed so little of that over the years and must practise more. Simply then I was just playing. That I've washed A LOT of over the years to exist certain. Simply information technology felt similar it had been a little while and I was just standing there, playing to my heart's content, letting my inner ear and my fingers take me wherever I could manage to go.

And eventually I hit upon this 1 piddling thing. Very uncomplicated. Based off an A chord but with a tiny little melodic thing attached. So simple that many, many, many, many guitar players could play what I just played. But information technology struck me that there was a little something in that "lick" that I was really feeling inside. And information technology struck me further that if I kept playing that, and played information technology equally purely and as deeply as I could, then perhaps I could play it unlike anybody else on earth.

Hubris… perchance, but I think there'southward an element of truth in at that place. All those years of only playing. Playing, playing, playing, which for me substantially started in a dorm room at Villanova in the mid xc's and lasted correct up through my room session tonight– at some point during that fourth dimension I inadvertently developed a fashion. Sure things come out of you when yous beat on a guitar over and over and over for years. One major thing that came out for me years ago was a slappy percussive thing. Yous can hear it on 75 & Sunny, Honeymoon Eyes, and a bunch of other tunes. That'southward not a guitar mode that I consciously set out to acquire. It'due south only what happened from playing and trying to brand it sound adept over and over and once more.

It strikes me that virtually people have some kind of unique element to their playing if they go on reaching for what they hear and spend plenty time on their musical instrument. Beyond what you hear in your caput, people's fingers are shaped differently, their dexterity naturally differs, they play with different levels of tension (non that tension is a good thing for your trunk), they utilise space in dissimilar ways. This is not to say that it'due south not essential to imitate the sound of others. (In fact, that is a crucial learning tool for anyone and I could be a much ameliorate musician today if I had done more than of that over the years. It's non taking away from your own unique style, it simply helps you lot in the long run.) But it fascinates me the different sounds that come up out of different people, even if they're trying to play the same matter.

Peter Prince's "The Souvenir" is a great example of this. The tune is pretty piece of cake to learn, based off of elementary guitar chords. One thousand, D, C, etc. We used to cover this melody and then I've played information technology. But I can't quite play it similar Peter. And I believe somehow that no ane tin can. Listen close. It'southward not so hard that even a beginner couldn't larn how to play the song. And what he himself is doing is not so incommunicable that someone couldn't spend a bunch of time on it to become every petty dash of his performance on the acoustic guitar. But Peter didn't accept to exercise that. He just played it and what your hear is how he played it.

All of these ideas fascinate me:

The nuances that come naturally from playing your musical instrument your way.

The nuances y'all can learn and hone in on from do.

The beyond.

What is the beyond?

Maybe the new nuances. The ones that naturally sprout up from your unique playing, but that you can now notice more easily, strop in on and nurture all the amend because you lot are a practiced practice-er.

(Errr… practitioner. )

It'due south only a hunch. Maybe anytime if I'm a practiced practitioner I can tell y'all for sure.

6 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: acoustic, ring, weblog, gift, guitar, montbleau, peter, practice, practitioner, prince, ryan, style

It was a Facebook message from a friend of a friend that sparked me to write this blog. That and looking at the van and trailer outside the Red Roof Inn just now in Kalamazoo, MI.

"gotta tell ya what ur doing has many ppl crossing their fingas and holdin' thier jiff till Y'all call up you've made it. personally, u fabricated information technology a long fourth dimension agone. proceed on keepin on. :-)"

The question of whether or not yous've "made information technology" is one that you plow over in your head from the get-go, I think. When yous showtime out in this business organisation, you have some unrealistic expectations. Only y'all know y'all're supposed to be humble, and so you lot are. I recall I've ever held the belief that at that place really is no making it, at to the lowest degree non in the usual sense. It'southward all about the journeying, etc., etc. You lot don't just become rich and famous 1 solar day or night and say "OK! Everything is perfect now." I think most people know that.

Just the question of when I think I've actually made information technology is very interesting to me right now. I'thousand going through some sort of transition in my confidence every bit of tardily. It'southward weird and maybe contradictory to say this, but at times I think I've sort of been humble to the point where information technology can affect me and my career negatively. I get wishy-washy in my fight for people'southward ears. It's a fine line as a performer. You demand to practice humility, but you lot also need to be the man up there, you know? You demand to believe that you're good. Damn good. Otherwise, why are you doing this?

So I've been trying to "discover my feet." I've been trying to stand up up direct, to stand upwards tall. Hell, just standing up in general has been a large deal for me. Two weeks ago I played my first gig ever where I didn't sit downward the entire show. Information technology's liberating. I stand all night every night now. I do a piffling goofy dance here and there, I motility around. I discover the crowd and I sing out as stiff as I can. Everything is starting to loosen upwardly, and this is a much needed transition.

OK, a petty off topic there, but some factors popped into my head this evening that make me recollect I've made it. One is the vehicle we're traveling in. We bought a great, huge, new van in the fall. Early this twelvemonth we pimped the hell out of information technology with a leather couch and amazingly comfy seats and bunks to nap on in the back. We pull all of our gear in a trailer.  This is such a far weep from some of the vans of years past, I tell yous that's making it.

The guy who built all of this in our van, and the guru of the trailer is also the guru of our audio every night. His proper noun is Luke Milanese and he's the adjacent reason that tells me I've fabricated it. I can't really imagine a better audio engineer. Luke is special and has a special fashion of identifying weaknesses and making things better and amend and better. We also travel with our ain soundboard now and Luke wields that affair like a powerful weapon. Nosotros stream the shows online every nighttime. Nosotros offering pristine recordings correct after the testify. Nosotros have a serious performance going on hither.

And I will take our guitar histrion over anyone's. And our bassist. And our keyboard player. And our percussionist. And our drummer.

And I mean that. Seeing a bunch of professionals assembled effectually me nighttime after nighttime, boot ass at their jobs, showing years of hard work on their instruments paying off– that'southward the real stuff that tells me I've fabricated it.

I have to go to bed so I won't fifty-fifty get into the other 1000 reasons that I call back I may have fabricated it. But I'll go out yous with one:

You lot just financed a tape of mine that no one has heard.  Then some!  There is no adequate fashion to show my gratitude for that, at that place is nothing I can say except…

I can't wait for y'all to hear it.  And I can't wait to brand another one.

http://bit.ly/4higher

This was my second Jam Cruise. Two years ago, our band got voted on to the gunkhole for Jam Prowl 8. This year they invited me to play as a solo performer. v days and nights on a luxury liner with with my girlfriend in a cabin that had a balcony off the side of the gunkhole. 3,000 raging political party-goers, five stages, peradventure 35 bands with about a zillion musicians who would blow my mind.

Information technology's hard to fit it all into words, it's actually impossible. I call back i of my favorite little personal moments of the trip was in the artist's lounge/vino bar on the 7th floor almost the jam room. The room was nearly empty (it ordinarily is), simply in the corner sat Bill Kreutzman of the Grateful Dead giving an interview aslope Papa Mali. Kreutzman told a funny story about how he was a piffling nervous when he was going to be playing with George Porter Jr. only when he showed up for their beginning gig together, George was already there, setting upward Beak's drums for him. I turned to head out of the lounge when the interview was over and there at the piano in the same room was Nigel Hall going over a melody with Living Color's Corey Glover.

Just waiting in the artist/staff line to go on to the boat is enough to make any fan of the jam world'south head spin. We made room in the aisle where Neal Evans caught up with Karl Denson in front end of united states of america. When the line started to move, nosotros passed Marco Benevento sitting to the side with his wife and beautiful kids. Met Raul from Ozomatli for the first time. Said how-do-you-do to Anders Osborne and to George Porter and met George's wife. Chatted with Robert Mercurio from Galactic. Slapped hands with Trombone Shorty's guys.

My intention is not to name-drop hither.  I'm just saying this was THE FIRST 30 MINUTES OF GETTING In that location, WAITING TO Become ON THE BOAT.  I was like:

"Holy shit there are some talented people getting on to this boat right now. If a terrorist blew up this building at that place would exist no jamming in the United states of america for the next 2 decades."

And that, past far is the overwhelming force of jam cruise: the music. This sounds obvious, merely acquit in mind, y'all're on a enormous prowl ship with 15 floors, restaurants, bars, lounges, a spa, a mini-golf grade, a disco. You lot're cruising into the Caribbean Sea making stops in Haiti and Jamaica… believe me in that location is enough of other stimulation to become around! Merely the tidal wave of music on this thing just trumps it all.

Some thoughts:

I think Eric Krasno is a genius. Beyond his musicianship, across his guitar playing, I tend to think that he's this kind of special connector signal for a ton of music and musicians coming together. It'southward hard to imagine the jam scene without him. And it's a attestation to his vision of music that what he does is not really "jam band" (whatever that ways anymore) in the get-go place.  I will say on that note, he sounds better than always. Dude is RIPPING, not to mention he had some beautiful, sublime quieter moments during Soulive's theater set. And watching him at work in his home studio a few months ago, it's articulate that he understands the ins and outs of tunes besides as anyone out there. Breathes music.

Speaking of Krasno… Lettuce must exist the sickest funk/soul band on the planet. It's just hard to imagine information technology getting much improve. Adam Deitch is a special drummer. They're all special players.

Mike Dillon has moved into my "favorite musicians on the planet" category.

Here are my favorite musical moments/sets from Jam Cruise X:

• Anders Osborne doing the original Paul Pena version of "Jet Airliner" http://www.youtube.com/lookout man?v=Cjr5U7g6aiA with Galactic and Corey Glover on the pool deck at night.

• Keller and the Keels in the theater. This ane surprised me. Jaw-dropping picking and fun, fun, fun.

• Soulive in the theater. The early originals, the Beatles tunes, and for me, the crusher: D'Angelo'due south Untitled (How Does it Feel), which got quiet and sublimely beautiful.

• Dead Kenny G's belatedly dark in the Zebra Lounge. Mike Dillon and Skerik taking you to hell and dorsum with sit-ins from Stanton Moore and Brad Barr. Mind blowing musical genius with punk rock free energy.

• Toots and the Maytals on the pool deck in the sunday. 54-46 into a gospel jam out in the breeze with frozen drinks as we exit Jamaica? Yes please.

And my own musical moments:

• Sitting in with Galactic for "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover."

• Playing tunes at "The Spot" with Nathan Moore, Brad Barr, and others. Great blog about this by Scotty Bernstein: http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/jc10-journal-on-the-16-of-every-60 minutes-terminal-night-at-the-spot/

• Singing "Love Rears It'south Ugly Head" with Living Color'southward Corey Glover and Galactic. Total dream come true for me. I used to listen to that vocal over and over in my Walkman in the backseat of my parents auto every bit they drove. Cut to Jam Cruise 2012 and Corey's got his arm effectually my cervix and we're singing information technology together on stage.

• Watching the end of Trombone Shorty's fix from the back of the stage on the pool deck.  People in the crowd singing the words that I wrote to "Something Beautiful" while Troy performed it.  I got tears in my eyes.

• Playing a assault the pool deck with the oversupply yelling either "Polo!" or "Benevento!" every fourth dimension I yelled "Marco!"

• Serenading the proficient folks of Positive Legacy in the fine dining eating place. When I played "Don't Worry Be Happy," even the waiters started singing and dancing.

I also sang "Pumped Upwardly Kicks" on stage with Toubab Krewe but it wasn't my finest work. However, an honor to sit in with that band.

I go out tomorrow for a tour that will have me on another cruise: Cayamo. WAY, mode different then Jam Prowl past all accounts and I am blest to exist able to exercise both. Ironically, we will have the full band.  This one is a songwriter cruise: Lyle Lovett, John Prine, John Hiatt, Richard Thompson, Lucinda Williams, Greg Brown, many others. More than about the listening than the dancing and raging. Nonetheless, I am psyched to throw downwards with the guys and I will be certain to blog nearly information technology.

Ahoy!

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Posted in music, Uncategorized | Tags: x, adam, corey, prowl, deitch, dillon, glover, jam, jamcruise, keller, krasno, mike, montbleau, ryan, ryanmontbleau, shorty, soulive, trombone, 10

"Success is gratitude."

Another gem from Livingston Taylor'due south book.  Think about that.  Successful people are thankful.  There is and then much ability in that idea.  They say if you take fourth dimension every day and make a list of what you lot're thankful for, information technology'll transform your life.  I believe that.  Not that I've been making lists.  But I do pray sometimes.  And beyond praying for others, I always try to speak a silent "thank-Yous" for what I take.

Spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with Jess' family unit.  A banquet of food and gifts and chat and family unit love around an old tabular array in an onetime house in an erstwhile town in Massachusetts.  Warm lights and the smell of a huge pot roast with succulent vegetables and fresh baked bread.  Endless desserts.  Wine.  Picayune barking dogs.

And at present I'm back dwelling house in my big cluttered room in a cold house in Lawrence, the infinite heater humming and the former radiators whistling, trying their best.  I but watched a documentary about Jean-Michel Basquiat on Netflix.  The other night I stayed up until 5am to sentinel a fascinating prove about found-life (no bullshit).  Skate videos have been in heavy rotation, political articles, a total-length documentary about Christian Hosoi, an inspiring little interview clip of Kelly Oxford, Thrasher Magazine, a groovy commodity about sleep cycles, recipes for cilantro-honey-lime marinade.  And I've been reading Josh Ritter'south novel "Bright's Passage."  Information technology's not bad.

I'm soaking stuff in.  The guitar feels skillful when I choice information technology up, I've skilful a lilliputian too.  I haven't really been writing, except for this blog.  By and large I'm but taking in.  And semi-stressing about the New year's shows.  They will exist great but we have to brand them great.  We demand new things to happen, new covers, new collaborations.  I always stress about this stuff heading in simply that's just part of the process I guess.  Can't await to snowboard.

This encephalon dump has been brought to you by a few needed days without shows.  I'yard non sure where I'm going with all of this, why I experience the need to share.  But I do.  I'grand floating in the cosmos, keeping the feelers out for whatever passes past.  I'm looking for a little clarity, a little direction right now.

And I am thankful that you're listening.

We drove habitation all 24-hour interval yesterday from Wilkes-Barre, PA to Lawrence, MA. Not the longest drive in the grand scheme of things, just those six hours always seem longer than they are. Information technology probably has something to practise with the fact that I'yard inevitably hungover when I leave Wilkes-Barre, PA.

I'm starting to experience like I used to feel when I got home from touring. Exhausted and antsy at the same time. Very tempted to get fucked up, to get out of my head at any toll. When y'all move around so much at a million miles an hour (or 75mph, whichever) then you come domicile and you all of a sudden stop… it can be hard to know what to do with yourself. I'yard trying to eat good, I went to yoga this night, I sent my parents some wine and a Christmas carte du jour and ran some other errands today.

After yoga I cooked a meal for one with more than enough nutrient for ii. Even when I'm abode, my house is 98 miles and a ferry ride from my girlfriend, and then that's just the way information technology goes sometimes. And I found a nice bottle of wine tucked abroad from some pot-luck or dinner party of yore. The smell of garlic in the air, seasoned warm chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, the steamed broccoli. I uncorked the canteen and happily downed a glass of that Chilean red with dinner in front of the TV. When I ate my seconds I drank water to rehydrate from the Bikram. Merely I was and so much looking forward to that adjacent glass of wine. I wondered if I would maybe end up downing the whole canteen.

And when I set out to exercise the dishes, I opened a cabinet and knocked the well-nigh-full bottle of wine clean off the marble counter. It smashed on the flooring in a million pieces. Shards of dark light-green glass and red pools that made our kitchen look like a murder scene, all spreading over the hardwood and seeping under the fridge.

Fuck.

Maybe that's a sign that I'g non supposed to be drinking.

We sold out two nights at Fairfield Theatre Company's pocket-size room this weekend. Concluding calendar week we sold out the Paradise in Boston with Assembly of Grit. Two weeks before that nosotros sold out City Winery in New York City. That was the end of a ii-calendar month tour during which we played 37 cities, conveying 7 guys and pulling a 6×12 trailer with our new van. I tin't say many of those were sell-outs, only every dark there was a crowd of some sort (except for Athens, GA, but that's however a great boondocks) and every night was positive.

It all feels on the up and up. My body has suffered some from all of the touring, simply the shows have been feeling outstanding for the most part. I read Livingston Taylor'southward book "Stage Operation"  while on tour and information technology has really rocked my world as far as existence on stage. You may non meet a large difference, but I certainly feel one. I'm there to notice you, not the other way around. Amazing.

A couple of notes most my forthcoming "New Orleans" record:

–It is not a record of New Orleans music. I did the recording session in the crescent metropolis with 4 of its amazing, amazing people and players (George Porter Jr., Ivan Neville, Anders Osborne, Simon Lott, plus producer Ben Ellman), but we did a mix of originals and semi-deep covers of the funk/soul/R&B variety. It is very different from other records I accept done.

–It looks like it's coming out May 15 ^th . We had to push it back slightly mainly considering…

–I will be my ain record label again. This is not something new, I've never in my career had an actual record deal (although I did sign a modest distribution deal a few years ago for "Patience on Friday" and ended up owing that characterization money. Crawly…) I thought that something might piece of work out for this new album and for the start time I was actually looking forward to the opportunity to actually work with a label. At that place was definitely some interest, only in the finish I'm going it lonely again. Well, non alone, I've got 2 managers, an agent, Trader Dan, the band, Ryan Laurey, friends, fans, family, and soon a temporary publicist if I tin can raise the funds.

–And so I remember we're starting a Kickstarter, or PledgeMusic entrada in January. I've ever been leery nigh going to the fans for funding. But selling the firm concerts on eBay is what allowed me to make this record in the first place. I think nosotros tin can have some fun with putting it out and I will merely do it because people get something straight for what they give. Incentives, y'all…

What else… Oh, hoping to blog more. Heh…

(I started this on the route in Wisconsin last week and finished it today in Massachusetts..)

Thought my laptop was completely fried, hard bulldoze, files, unfinished songs and all, merely James fixed it and here I am!  Writing from a cottage on a beautiful lake in Wisconsin.  Elkhart Lake, to be verbal.

We continue to atomic number 82 overjoyed lives.  With hardcore space-shuttle van missions in between to become to the charmed destinations.  The rear A/C unit in the Sprinter broke.  Not the finish of the world, but it tin brand for some uncomfortable xiii-hour drives, which we're doing regularly as of tardily.  Got to get to the finish of the rainbow!  On Saturday we played in front of maybe 1000-2000 people at an outdoor beer festival in Denver.  The side by side 24-hour interval nosotros played Mishawaka Amphitheater in the gorgeous Rockies, a river rushing straight behind the stage, tossing out absurd moist mountain air.

Then we got in the dilapidated blue shuttle and drove 13 hours on Monday, munching on Colorado's finest magical oyster crackers and winding up in a hotel in Iowa for 6 well-earned hours of slumber.  Got upward and dove another 6 hours yesterday to get to this beautiful little lake town in Wisconsin.  The people are extremely friendly, the food is astonishing, and bratwurst, cheese and beer are an art-form non to be taken lightly.

We are thankful to have a two-night stand here.  Information technology means we didn't have to drive anywhere today.  Or load out final dark.

Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Des Moines, Iowa.  Wichita, Kansas.  Bellvue, Colorado.  Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  Everywhere we go, there are people who know the words to the songs.  People sporting the t-shirts.  People who drove from 2 hours away to encounter the show.  Even the places we take never been to (Kalamazoo, Des Moines), information technology seems we can count on 50-threescore people showing upwards and being pumped on an off-nighttime during the week.

Tomorrow we volition drive 14 hours e and and then some other three or so the next day right into a boat cruise in Manhattan.  Huge boat in Boston the adjacent twenty-four hour period for our annual hometown prowl.  900 people on a boat.  And then nosotros're home.  Thanks to Yahuba for getting married the following weekend, thereby giving the states a weekend off!  Those don't come very frequently these days…

Mountain Jam was a smash and an honor.  Met Mavis Staples.  (!!!!!)  She said I have to write a song for her.  OK so!  The night before, James and I went to Levon Helm'south Midnight Constitutional in Woodstock, where Mavis was the special guest.  After a full set from Mavis and her ring, a full ready from Levon and his band, all 18 musicians did a combined 12-vocal set and recorded a record right in front end of us.  If they didn't feel they got a good take, they would replay the tunes.  Sometimes three times.  Larry Campbell running the evidence.  Mavis taking us to church.  Levon holding it downwards as he has for decades.  Amazing.  Felt like we were watching history existence made.

On a different level, was too very impressed by the Avett Brothers gear up at Mountain Jam.  A couple of weeks ago nosotros played the Canal Street Tavern in Dayton, Ohio.  In the kitchen/light-green room, every bit nosotros saturday effectually a tabular array eating our subs, I noticed an Avett Bros. poster on the wall.  Someone said it was from 2005 or so when they played in that location final.  Made me remember…  Five or six years later on and now they're playing on the Grammy'due south, bravado upwardly everywhere, and blowing upward the very Mountain Jam stage that we played on a few hours before them.  You actually don't find many templates in this business.  Every act is so unlike and the manufacture changes fast.  But to meet the poster of a ring who has been at it longer than us, having played the aforementioned club that we now find ourselves in, a band who is nonetheless fighting the good fight and KILLING Information technology night afterward nighttime on bigger and bigger stages…

That's inspirational.

Some days I'm not sure how many more than years we tin become.  It's been eight years in one van or another.  We're grown men in a metal box day after day.  Might also exist in a submarine (no boldness to those who really do alive in a submarine).  I recall hearing years ago about how Dave Matthews didn't "make information technology" until he was 34.  I always thought that was a skillful number to shoot for.  And I idea I was quite the modest and realistic i for thinking that 34 would be when I would "make it."  Although I would also tell you that there was no such thing every bit "making it," and I all the same believe that for the most part.

I turned 34 on Saturday.  And as I told the boat, "Glad to see that I was right."  I take made it.

I'm still my own record label, I'thou still in debt and adequately broke, and I'1000 still riding in a van trying to make sure everybody has enough money to eat.  But the music is amend than always.  And all of these seeds we've been planting for years…they're sprouting.  People sing the words every night.  And we play bigger and bigger stages, we've opened for Dave, we've seen that operation.  His level of success is non a pipage dream now.  I mean it is, but we can see information technology for the reality, even the impossible reality that it is.  We have witnessed it.  And maybe nosotros're just getting started.

Let me give a cursory rundown of recent touring and then I'll go into the bigger stuff.

We took the first two months of 2011 essentially off.  It was like a dream.  By far the most time we've had at abode in seven or 8 years.  Near of it I spent on Martha'south Vineyard with my girlfriend.  I took an online lyric writing form at Berklee and tried to learn to arctic out.

Since the pause we've done 48 shows.  This by weekend was insane.

We were home for 2 days later a calendar month-long run that included me recording a new album in New Orleans (more on that afterwards).  Two days and then we hit the route again, straight to Pittsburgh.  So Dayton.  The next afternoon we played Summer Camp festival, a huge jam fest, nineteen,000 people, outside of Chicago on two hours of slumber.  Played a very enjoyable ready in that location, got in the van and collection for Eighteen STRAIGHT HOURS back east.

18.

Straight to a Men'due south Wearhouse in White Plains, NY where we picked upward our tuxedo rentals and loaded into a beautiful chateau to play a Jewish hymeneals.  Fully tuxed, the guys did a jazz set up for the cocktail 60 minutes, Jay played for the ceremony, and and so we threw downwards two sets for the reception.  I sang Hava Nagila while the guys played it and the crowd threw the bride and groom around on chairs, the whole nine.

Slept in a hotel and drove to StrangeCreek, where a hometown audition wiped the grime off of any road fatigue and left us all with huge grins on our faces.  Amazing oversupply.  From my vantage betoken, they all moved and slithered as ane joyful and excited animate being.

Lyle'southward been killing it on guitar.  The guys and I could not exist more excited most where we are musically.  And where nosotros believe we can go.  Realize, we're only at the very beginning with Lyle.  And it's been almost entirely gigging, we've barely even had time to rehearse together.  And he has slid in and the music already feels better than ever as far every bit we're concerned.  And it truly is the beginning.  It'due south not all merely face-melting guitar solos and it's non going to be.  Although that'due south in there.  It'due south parts, it'due south our pocket and cohesion equally a band.  Just wait.

——–

Laurence.

We all miss him.  I miss him.  There are times when I expected him to come up walking around the corner or expected him to be at the van.  It's hard.  In Burlington I looked out over the audition and swore that I saw him for a second in the crowd.

I call up the perception is that we replaced Laurence with Lyle.  It certainly looks that way, but this is actually not the example.  Yous don't supercede Laurence Scudder.  You tin't.  (After he left some of the fans after shows would inquire me, "So what are y'all going to exercise for viola now?"  The answer is we don't have viola now.  Nosotros're dissimilar now.  That'southward just the manner it is.  Y'all can't replace Laurence.)

Lyle had played some gigs with united states in December, with all of u.s., including Laurence.  There are spatial and economical concerns with taking too many guys out on the route.  I wanted to try something different for a bout, leave Yahuba and Laurence at dwelling house and take a 5-piece out with Lyle.  Merely to mix it up, stir the pot.  Not permanent, see how it works, try something different for once.

Laurence left.  Suddenly everything was permanent.

That's about all I'll say almost that for at present.  Suffice to say, I dearest Laurence Scudder and mayhap in time our paths nosotros lead back together again.  That dude put in seven of the almost hardcore road years that you could imagine every bit a office of this band and I'd similar to call up that there's quite a bond built upward from that.  One which can never be broken.

For at present, we'll be heading down separate roads.

NEW ORLEANS-

Three weeks ago, I recorded ten tracks in two days at a beautiful studio in New Orleans and the session band was: George Porter Jr. on bass, Ivan Neville on keys, Anders Osborne on guitar, and Simon Lott on drums.  All put together by producer Ben Ellman, of Galactic.  Ben produces Trombone Shorty's records.  Afterward I wrote some lyrics for Shorty terminal yr, the thought was, "Why don't you write that kind of stuff for yourself and get into the studio with Ben and meet what happens?"  So Ben put together this RIDICULOUS dream ring of New Orleans players.  I freaked out about what textile to bring to the tabular array.  The next matter I knew I was in a vocal berth looking out at George Porter and talking vocal construction.  Totally surreal.

I still don't know what information technology'due south going to be called.  We tracked six originals and iv SWEET covers.  I'1000 not sure every single vocal is going to make information technology onto the album, but the grooves are then deep, the pocket is and then astonishing on every track.  Truly humbled to have been able to work along side such players and such men.  It comes out this fall on "Ryan is Still His Own Tape Label."

And and so Ryan Montbleau Ring is going to get to piece of work on our next one.

We finished our testify in Asheville the other night and drove straight home from the gig.  16 hours of final certitude in the van and and so we pulled up to our driveway for the start time since September.

Chilly, rainy day in Lawrence, MA today.  Head is groggy from the road.  Information technology's difficult to know what to practice with yourself when you become habitation.  You lot know you should remainder but 6 straight weeks at 80 miles per hour tells y'all other wise.  And so yous want to move, just your body just can't.  You want to maybe think, read, create, but your encephalon won't budge.  Everything'southward fuzzy.  The lights seem dim.

Non knowing anything else, I played more of the trivial discussion game (Scramble 2) on my phone that got me through all those van hours.  I checked Twitter and Facebook a bunch, just like I did during all those van hours.  I watched YouTube.  Skate videos more often than not, simply eventually music.  Django Reinhardt, Stochelo Rosenberg, Brian Setzer.  And dug out this classic that perfectly suits my mood at the moment (thanks to Andrea for pointing me to the original version):

Besides I put on The Barr Brothers CD before and was amazed by information technology.

In the last 45 days we did 35 cities in 25 states.  A few shows were lightly attended but near were not.  Mostly, we had some very good nights full of hardcores from all over the land singing back the words I wrote.  People drove from hours abroad to get to the shows or used the shows as an excuse to make trips to see old friends.  There was strength out there, in that location were stories of people being truly affected by the music.  Astonishing.

One man in Seattle wandered backstage subsequently the show and told me my music saved his life.  Later, his married woman would electronic mail me saying that this was, in fact true.  He had gone through a period where he had grown more and more dark, more detached from his loved ones, somewhen contemplating suicide.  Something about hearing "75 and Sunny" for the commencement time at one of the Martin shows this past spring but lit some kind of light support in him.  Right and so and there he started turning things around.

It'due south however amazing to me equally I type this out.  I think almost the adult female who named her baby "Patience Friday" or the stories about all kinds of children singing the words to "Eggs."  E'er see this one?

I'm not sure why I bring all this upward now.  I'm merely thinking almost it all as I sit down here in my room for the showtime time in a while.

Guitar case sits past the door.  The van and trailer are parked in the drizzle exterior.  Mail nevertheless sits in an enormous stack on the flooring that I will put off for as long equally possible.  My banjo sits on the unmade bed along with my camera instance and a dingy shirt that I will surely continue to wear.

What did we but do out there?  Bringing up these stories is an extreme manner of reminding me.

It'south sort of a weird platform for me to write this, but I'll say information technology again:  I just want to go the art better.

(This is a weird platform considering if you're reading this, you lot're likely a fan of the music I've already made.  You're the just people in the world who might not want or look amend.  Y'all're the only people in the world who are ok with what I've already done.  Merely I digress…)

There are many more shows to play to close out this twelvemonth, including a run with JJ Grey and Mofro starting adjacent calendar week, a bunch of our own dates through Dec, and New year's day's in Foxboro, MA.  These should all be a boom.  On our best nights now, I feel like the ring has reached a overnice place of looseness and tightness all at once.

And in January, when the real decompression starts to take identify, much more than will this week, then I hope to buckle down and get-go creating in earnest.  I just want to become the art improve.  I want to get it better and I believe that I tin can.  And it seems that a fair corporeality of people are listening now.

So I've got that going for me.  Which is nice.

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